Because it is the AMERICAN way!!!!]]>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150331/12143730502/ross-ulbrichts-lawyers-were-told-about-corrupt-investigators-barred-using-that-during-his-trial.shtml#c69
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:43:10 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150331/12143730502/ross-ulbrichts-lawyers-were-told-about-corrupt-investigators-barred-using-that-during-his-trial.shtml#c69The dinosaurs totally miss the point.https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150327/05395130459/cord-cutting-denial-is-alive-well.shtml#c247
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:41:53 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150327/05395130459/cord-cutting-denial-is-alive-well.shtml#c247Re: Re: Re:https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150325/06220130424/when-analyzing-cord-cutting-options-most-tv-analysts-continue-to-pretend-piracy-simply-doesnt-exist.shtml#c1083
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:41:42 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150325/06220130424/when-analyzing-cord-cutting-options-most-tv-analysts-continue-to-pretend-piracy-simply-doesnt-exist.shtml#c1083To make that claim you can't simply ignore huge portions of data. He makes the claim that "You'll miss some popular TV" by using the internet rather than cable, and scores it in cable's favor. That's like saying "my store is better than the store on the other side of the street because there's no crosswalk so you can't get to the other store." And most people are thinking "that's nice, I'll just walk across the street without a crosswalk." Sure, that option is illegal but how many people aren't going to walk across the street just because someone didn't put up a crosswalk?

If the article had just been about legal options for getting TV on the internet that would have been one thing. But instead he made the argument that cable was somehow better than the internet, while ignoring the massive amount of utility gained from the internet that cable doesn't have.

The entire premise is flawed, anyway. Cable has a single purpose; watching TV. The internet is capable of watching some (or most, if you're willing to pirate) TV, plus about a million other things, like work, communication, education...the list goes on and on.

It's sort of like complaining that your smartphone doesn't have as good of a GPS as your Garmin, so therefore the Garmin "beats" your phone. One is a specialized, narrow tool for a specific purpose, and the other does so much more. Not only that, it would be hard to argue that the Garmin is in fact superior for everyday navigation, although it is better in the specific situation it was designed for (mostly outdoor exploration).

The funniest part to me is that most of cable's "advantages" in the article only exist because the cable companies have created an artificial licensing barrier. They could easily release all their content online and cable would be virtually obsolete overnight; there's no technical reason they couldn't (and even the business reasons are suspect). When a technology's main advantage is "we've locked our stuff down so you need to be a criminal in order to access it any other way" it doesn't get a whole lot of sympathy from me.]]>https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150321/16310630398/publishers-actively-monitoring-testing-students-social-media-posts-possible-cheating.shtml#c259
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 14:40:26 PDThttps://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150321/16310630398/publishers-actively-monitoring-testing-students-social-media-posts-possible-cheating.shtml#c259And of course, none of their kids go to public schools.]]>